US brands China and Russia 'forces of instability'

John Sullivan, the acting US secretary of state, presents an annual global human rights report that labels China and Russia as "forces of instability"

The United States branded strategic rivals China and Russia "forces of instability" on Friday, grouping them with Iran and North Korea as countries whose rights abuses amount to a global threat.

The charge was made by acting secretary of state John Sullivan as he launched Washington's annual global human rights report, which this year is focused on destabilizing abuses by state actors.

Human rights groups were quick to criticize the report, noting that it had been stripped of much of the reporting on women's and reproductive rights that it had contained in recent years.

Instead, President Donald Trump's administration has refocused the report on government-led crackdowns on a narrower range of human rights recognized under US and international law.

And Sullivan, in a preface to the report, underlined the importance of rights reporting for US interests and security.

"Some governments are unable to maintain security and meet the basic needs of their people, while others are simply unwilling," Sullivan wrote, introducing the country-by-country reporting.

"States that restrict freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly; that allow and commit violence against members of religious, ethnic, and other minority groups; or that undermine the fundamental dignity of persons are morally reprehensible and undermine our interests," he wrote.

"The governments of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, for example, violate the human rights of those within their borders on a daily basis and are forces of instability as a result."

Global watchdog Human Rights Watch was quick to criticize the report's change of direction, lamenting the loss in coverage of "societal" limits on rights, in particular for women.